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Rory McIlroy has track record to shine this week at Wells Fargo

Back when he played in the Allianz Championship on the Champions Tour in Boca Raton last February, longtime CBS broadcaster Bobby Clampett predicted it would be at least the Masters before Rory McIlroy got his game back on track.

Three months later, McIlroy is still spinning his wheels. But this week, on a Quail Hollow course in Charlotte where he has had success, he might have an opportunity to get some traction heading into next week’s Players Championship.

McIlroy has played Quail Hollow (officially known as the Wells Fargo Championship) three times. In 2010, he rolled to a four-shot victory over Phil Mickelson to win his first PGA Tour event; in 2011 he missed the cut, and in 2012 he reached a playoff before losing to Matt Kuchar.

By now he knows the course, knows what it takes to win and surely takes confidence into Thursday’s first round.

Consistency has been the biggest problem for McIlroy this year. He had a horrible start, missing the cut at Abu Dhabi, being eliminated from Match Play in the first round and then withdrawing halfway through the second round of the Honda Classic.

After his mea culpa the next week before teeing it up at Doral, McIlroy struggled early but finished fast, posting a final-round 65 to climb to a tie for eighth. But he couldn’t carry that into his next event, failing to break 70 in four rounds at Houston on his way to finishing in a tie for 45th. Another brilliant final round got him a second at San Antonio, the week before the Masters, but a 79 in the third round at Augusta doomed him and he wound up tied for 25th.

The one promising aspect of McIlroy’s tournaments this year has been that he’s shot his best round of every tournament on Sunday. If he finds himself actually in contention, being able to deliver the same finishing kick could get him a much-needed win.

While McIlroy is now a distant second behind Tiger Woods in the world rankings, the fact he’s been able to remain ahead of the likes of Adam Scott, Justin Rose and Luke Donald, who command spots 3-5, is one indication of how well he played the last couple of years.

But the meat of the 2013 schedule is now upon us: After the Players, it’s only another four weeks to the U.S. Open, with the British Open then a a little over another month away. With all that in mind, this week could be the make-or-break as to whether McIlroy will ever get it going again this year.

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